http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/05/03/2341209/Gene-Therapy-Restores-Sight-To-Blind "Looks like we have found a cure for genetic blindness (clinical trial — abstract — paper [PDF] — ABC News video). This gene therapy treatment increases both cone and rod photoreceptor-based vision. These engineered viruses are implanted to do our bidding to restore vision. Clinical trials on 6 children and young people proved the therapy and didn't find any notable side effects."
I think the same can be done with deafness but only if you had it since you were born or something genetic.
If it's for real and widely applicable (not only with very specific cases), then this marks a really important moment in science.
If you take a look at the abstract, this is a treatment for a specific kind of blindness caused by a mutation in a certain enzyme pathway, in otherwise anatomically normal humans. So the real story is just: gene therapy successfully treats enzyme problem. Good news, but I think most blind people aren't suffering from that particular condition.
Stem Cells are also used in some cases of blindness , and the results has been promising too. So I hope for a bright future in that area
Now the problem - in order to truly cure this problem it needs to be free or extremely cheap, accessible worldwide, and people in third-world countries will need the proper education that this can even be cured, as doctors are scarce and parents won't bring their children for this treatment if they do not think that a cure exists. Finding a cure for this is outstanding and a testament to humanity - now lets get it the last mile to where it is needed.
So just one form of blindness is cured, not all of it? Confusing me like hell. I just hope if it's not all blindness that this helps lead the way towards much more quickly to solving that.
Jesus could do it too... Let's find his remains and clone him; then use his stem cells on everyone who's sick, and presto, problem solved for the sick. And also, there's a potential market for those ones who are willing to pay whatever to be the child of god.
